WWETAC: Who We Are

Nancy Grulke

E-mail: ngrulke [at] fs.fed.us
Phone: 541-416-6583

Nancy Grulke is the new Director of WWETAC and comes to the position from the Pacific Southwest Research Station. Nancy has worked in a variety of capacities for state and federal governments, universities, non-profits, and in the private sector. She was a science coordinator for the Pacific Northwest & Pacific Southwest Research Stations’ Climate Change Program in Corvallis, OR and worked at Montana State University, and was adjunct faculty at the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and Oregon State University. She also worked as a consultant in Washington state on a variety of projects and for the Nature Conservancy in the eastern Montana grasslands. Over the years, Nancy has worked on a number of environmental threats across the western U.S., with a focus on National Forests. She received her undergraduate degree in ecology at Duke University and a Ph.D. in botany from the University of Washington.

Charles "Terry" Shaw, Retired

E-mail: charlesgshaw[at] fs.fed.us
Phone: 541-416- 6600

Charles G. "Terry" Shaw was formerly chief scientist and director of WWETAC. Prior to coming to the Center Terry was the national program lead for forest pathology research in the Forest Service Washington Office. Terry has had a long career as a scientist and project manager in Alaska and Colorado and has served in many capacities, including the science review team leader for the Tongass National Forest plan. Terry’s field of expertise include Armillaria root disease, dwarf mistletoes, and forest pest modeling/risk assessment. Terry graduated from Oregon State University in 1974 with a Ph.D. in plant pathology and spent time with the research arm of the New Zealand Forest Service.

Alan A. Ager

E-mail: aager [at] fs.fed.us
Phone: 541-416-6603

Alan Ager is an operations research analyst. He received a Ph.D. in forest genetics at the University of Washington, M.S. in plant genetics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and B.S. in forest science and forest management from the University of Washington. Alan has worked on a wide range of research and management projects since starting with the Forest Service in 1987. His current interests include stress detection in forest trees, spatial modeling of wildfire, risk analysis, and a variety of operations research problems related to forest management.

Nicole Vaillant

E-mail: nvaillant [at] fs.fed.us
Phone: 541-233-6107

Nicole Vaillant is a fire ecologist at the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center and has worked for the Forest Service since 2001. She received a Ph.D. and M.S. in environmental science, policy, and management at the University of California, Berkeley, and a B.S. in evolution and ecology from the University of California, Davis. While at Berkeley, her research involved stand level fuel treatment effectiveness, landscape scale strategic fuel treatment planning and effectiveness, and fire history. Prior to coming to the Center Nicole worked as a seasonal wildland fire fighter, including a season with the Redding Hotshots, and was a fire ecologist with Adaptive Management Services Enterprise Team. Her current interests include characterizing fire behavior at multiple scales, fuel treatment effectiveness, and risk analysis.

A. Paige Fischer

E-mail: paigefischer [at] fs.fed.us
Phone: 541-758-7793

A. Paige Fischer is a research social scientist with the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center and Pacific Northwest Research Station of the US Forest Service. Paige’s research interests include cultural and sociological influences on how people, particularly private landowners, perceive and address environmental problems such as biodiversity loss, wildfire risk and climate change. She also studies how to use qualitative sociological data to inform policy development. Paige received her B.A. in anthropology from Hampshire College in Amherst, MA and M.S. and Ph.D. from the College of Forestry at Oregon State University in Corvallis.

Jeffrey Hicke

E-mail: jhicke [at] uidaho.edu
Phone: 208-885-6240
Web: http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~jhicke/

Jeff Hicke is a visiting scientist at WWETAC and an assistant professor of geography and environmental science at the University of Idaho. He studies global environmental change issues across a range of spatial and temporal scales. In particular, Jeff's research addresses the interaction of climate, forests, and disturbances such as wildfire and insect outbreaks. Jeff received his Ph.D. from the University of Colorado at Boulder and held a research scientist position at the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University before coming to UI in August 2006.

Lisa Balduman

E-mail: lbalduman [at] fs.fed.us
Phone: 541-750-7395

Lisa Balduman works as a technical information specialist for WWETAC. She received her M.S. degree from Oregon State University's Forest Science Department after completing a project studying the genetics of cold hardiness in coastal Douglas fir. She has worked for the Forest Service in various capacities since 1990. Lisa maintains the WWETAC web site and the project and reference databases.

Judy Haigler

E-mail: jhaigler [at] fs.fed.us
Phone: 541-416-6618

Judy Haigler is the program assistant for WWETAC. Judy has 19 years of experience working with the Forest Service in numerous administrative positions. Judy's duties at WWETAC include financial management, procurement, newsletters, contracting, and other technical and administrative tasks. She received a Business Management Certificate in 1972 from Lane Community College in Eugene, Oregon, and continued with administrative work throughout her career.

Jerry Beatty, Retired

Jerome “Jerry” Beatty was the first director of the Western Wildland Environmental Threat Assessment Center. Jerry graduated from Duke University School of the Environment in 1977 and began his Forest Service career as a biological technician in Asheville, North Carolina. Jerry came to the PNW Station in April 2005, after a 29-year career as a forest pathologist with Forest Health Protection in New Mexico, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, and as the Deputy Director of Forest Health Protection in the Washington Office.